Sub: Progress in RTE 25% Admissions for Poor Students in Private Schools- Government of Telangana Issues Orders- Struggle of JAC for Total Implementation to Continue

After a struggle of over 2 years by the JAC (Joint Action Committee) for Implementation of 25% Free Admissions for Poor Students in Private schools- comprising of COVA, DBSU, Divya Disha, MAHITA, MSI, MVF, People’s Alliance for Child Rights, UFERWAS and filing of a Writ Petition on 23rd March 2015 in the High Court of Hyderabad, the Director School Education, Telangana State issued a letter to the Regional Joint Director, School Education, Hyderabad and Warangal directing to take action to provide 25% free admission to the children of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections from next academic year 2015-16.

The members of JAC and representatives of different political parties including CPI, CPM, Congress, Lok Satta. AAP and other addressed a Press Conference in Hyderabad on 1st June 2015 and announced that they would launch a public awareness campaign to enable poor parents to apply for free admissions to private schools as per Rules and if any are denied admissions they would approach the government and the court for redress and proper implementation of the RTE Act 2009. Press Note is appended below.

Joint Action Committee for Implementation of Model RTE Rules in Telangana State

Parliament of India enacted the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Act No.35 of 2009) to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years and the Act was to come in force from 01.04.2010. One of the key provisions of the Act is Provision of 25% Free Admissions to children from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in all non- minority private schools in the country and the State Governments to compensate the private schools with an annual fee.

Despite many orders and directives from the Central government including the Supreme Court of India in its Judgment delivered on 6th May 2014, not a single child from the Economically Weaker Sections has been admitted to private schools in Telangana of Andhra Pradesh as per Sec 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act 2009.

Many States have implemented 25% Free Admission Rule to some extent except Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Overview of Implementation of RTE 25% Free Admissions in Private Schools in different states is given in the table below:

Number of seats expected to be reserved in Grade I under 25 percent quota in private schools [calculated from DISE 2013-4 without exempted minority institutions]

Since 2013 the Joint Action Committee has been actively campaigning to inform general public of the provisions of the RTE Act and had been lobbying with the government for implementation of 25% free admissions under the Act. JAC with the support of political parties organised Roundtable Meetings and submitted representations and Model RTE Rules to all concerned from the President of India to the District Education Officer. COVA, the Secretariat of JAC in association with other members of JAC filed a Writ Petitions in the honorable High Court of AP in on 23rd March 2015 with a prayer to direct the Telangana State Government to ensure implementation of sec 12 (1) (c) of RTE Act 2009 stipulating at least 25% free admissions to children from EWS in private schools in the State at least from the Academic Year 2015-16 commencing from June 2105.

As a result of these efforts the Director School Education, Telangana State issued a letter received by JAC on 15th May 2015 to the Regional Joint Director, School Education, Hyderabad and Warangal, under intimation to the Principal Secretary to Government Education (SE) Department, Government of Telangana and COVA requesting to take action to provide 25% free admission to the children of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections from next academic year 2015-16 as per rules in force and submit report in the matter at an early date (copy enclosed).

Now we demand:

Total number of private schools, including those offering the CBSE and ICSE syllabi in the State must be identified/ notified and should be asked to reserve the seats, conduct admissions and submit a compliance report to the education department within three months of the commencement of the academic year.2015-16.

Government shall make all efforts (like large scale publicity, house to house survey, ) to identify the children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in the neighbourhood to ensure their admissions into private schools as stipulated.

Facilitate parents of the deserving children to fill application forms and ensure that the schools accept all completed forms and issue proper acknowledgement receipts.

In case sufficient numbers of children are not available within 1 k. m. in spite of all the efforts and Admission Committee is satisfied, then the school shall try to identify children from the extended neighborhood (up to 3 k. m.). In any case seats meant for the children from disadvantaged group and weaker section remain vacant, they should not be diverted to general candidate.

Schools shall ensure that the entire process of admission is transparent, unbiased, fair and equitable and should be conducted under the supervision of a government official not lower than the rank of the Vice- principal as is being done in other states.

Entry level age criteria for 1st std should be 5 years, for pre-primary 4 yrs and for play group 3 years

The Act should be amended with provision of penal action against private schools if they fail to reserve the requisite seats, steps should be taken to withdraw recognition to offending schools.

Government should make sufficient financial allocation and as per Section 12 (2) of the RTE Act, and should reimburse the expenditure incurred by private schools for admitting students free of cost.

By the statistics it seems that Modi’s own state Gujarat is worst amongst all in filling the seats which may be assigned to few reasons 1. that the so calle ‘developed” state Gujarat’s people are not aware (because too busy earning money)of the facilities available and everything they demand for free is a joke. 2.The people of Gujarat are highly illiterarte and do not know their rights available. 3 . The school/college administration is crooked and manipulative and do everything wrong to bypass the laws and earn money.
However, whatever the process is adopted, the fundamental idea should be to keep everybody honest and not just harass anybody.
The fundamental democratic rights have been denied in the country since indepandance and theere is nothing wrong in demanding RTE and 25% seats reserved. But keeping the seats vacant and not to be filled by others is questionable.